


Keeping Faith

by RileyC



Category: Batman - Fandom, Batman: The Animated Series
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-07-12
Updated: 2012-07-12
Packaged: 2017-11-09 20:12:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/457913
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RileyC/pseuds/RileyC
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The day Alfred realizes there will be no going back.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Keeping Faith

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the lj comm, ComicDrabbles; Challenge #001 - First.

The first couple of weeks hadn’t been so bad. No worse than the scraped knees and elbows Alfred had taken care of when Master Bruce was in short pants.

Tonight, however—tonight, as he stopped the bleeding and handed Dr. Thompkins the instruments she asked for, as he watched her suture knife wounds and remove a bullet that had nicked a rib, and listened to monitors assure him that Master Bruce’s heart still beat, Alfred Pennyworth felt long-mended cracks in his reserve begin to split open.

The last time that had happened was that awful night, when Alfred had been putting the final touches to a light supper for Dr. and Mrs. Wayne and young Master Bruce to enjoy after they returned home from the theater. And then the doorbell rang and he found two Gotham City detectives waiting in the porte-cochère with terrible news. He was always mortified afterwards to remember how difficult it had been to fully comprehend what the detectives told him. Of course it was a dreadful mistake. It had to be. He had gripped that conviction like a lifeline for the interminably long drive into the city, to the morgue. But even that faint ember of hope went cold and died when the attendant drew back the sheets that covered the bodies and Alfred saw that it was indeed Dr. and Mrs. Wayne.

Of all the tasks he had anticipated being called upon to perform in his service to the Wayne family, arranging the funeral of his employers had been nowhere on the list. Nor had the prospect of bringing up young Master Bruce.

There had been many times he feared he was not at all qualified for that responsibility. Tonight, as Master Bruce had lain in his arms, bleeding from a half-dozen wounds and barely conscious, able to return to the Cave only by sheer force of will, Alfred knew all of this was his fault. He had failed miserably in his task to keep Master Bruce safe and this was the result. He should have moved heaven and earth all of those years ago to make certain Master Bruce let go of the anger and moved past the grief of his parent’s murder.

He sighed and looked around the small room set aside in the Cave for medical emergencies, where Master Bruce rested quietly now. The wisp of hope he had treasured, that this all might just be a phase, had shriveled up and disappeared. Once again life was forever altered, and if the future he glimpsed frightened him, that would forever be his secret.

And the devil himself be damned if he ever failed Master Bruce again.


End file.
